Holy cow, what aroma. What now?


 
John Neuser

John Neuser

TVWBB Fan
I will apologize for the length of this post up front.

History: I'm an 80 year old guy who has been smoking for.....maybe.....25 years. Still an amateur. I smoke maybe 2-3 times a year. Always happy with my cooks but I'm not giving up my day job, if I had one. I've smoked butts, ribs, chicken, sausage, bacon, jerkey, cheese, salmon, trout etc. I think and, the family thinks, I make great briskets. Anyway, I've always used Weber wood chunks, apple, cherry, pecan, hickory, etc. I've also used seasoned apple from a tree I took down from my property. I'm getting ready to do another brisket. I thought I'd like to try post oak.

Now in the past , all the chunks I've used had zero aroma/fragrance out of the container. Note, I've only used Weber wood chunks. A week and a half ago I visited my daughter and got some red oak which I cut into chunks. Observation: again, none of these woods had any inherent aroma including the 12 month old red oak.

I've always wanted to try smoking with post oak. So, last week, I ordered 10# of said wood from Fruitawood. It arrived today. When I opened the box I was hit with the fragrance of this wood. OMG. Every piece, I mean, every piece in the box was so fragrant. Now I'm a little nervous to try it.

Now I'm thinking I should plane some of the wood to get shavings, add some heat and get a sense of what the smoke smells like. Have any of you tried this? Am I over thinking it? Does the very aromatic flavor of the post oak translate into a more smokier taste than a chunk of off-the-shelf hickory or some other oak?

I'm all for trying a test piece of meat but I really do not want to test on an $80 full packer for a family get together. Comment/thoughts/suggestions are always appreciated. Thank you so much.
 
Fruitawood products are incredible! I’m sold and have become a disciple of their goods. I would not plane off curls, seems like a lot more work than the return is worth. The moisture contend of the chunk is what gives the amazing flavor plane off curls (which would be pretty small) and you will end up with some pretty expensive tinder.
Use it as the chunks and rake in compliments! Enjoy!
 
I've used Fruitawood Post Oak and it does great. You may find you need less of it than the stuff you've been using. The wood chunks you get at most places is kiln dried which isn't necessarily a bad thing but a lot of them over dry it and there's no moisture left. It burns too quickly and produces much less flavor. In general, post oak is milder in flavor than hickory, pecan or mesquite. It's stronger than apple, but if you've used seasoned apple then then the fruitawood post oak will be slightly stronger than that probably. I just bought a half-rick of post oak for my offset. It's at about 20% moisture and smells fantastic.
 
Any wood that is shipped has to be heat treated to kill bugs, that also causes flavor loss of some amount. I am a fan of hickory and get it local, others I pu at stores,
 
I found that my local woods are fresher and with more flavor that packaged, store bought brands. Moisture in the wood has a lot to do with its flavor profile.

These days I’m using CA white oak and red wine barrel cut up staves, also made from oak.

Pretty happy with the results. I have some plum wood up next. I’ll use this fruit wood on pork, chicken and some fish.

If the wood is fragrant, you’ll likely need less of it that you’re used to using.

For a whole brisket, I use around 3 chunks of wood total, each size is around baseball sized.
 
I'm in Central Texas and post oak is widely available as fire wood. I steal a few logs from my neighbors and cut it into 3" lengths with a chop saw and then split it to a handy size (usually no bigger than half a fist). It's probably seasoned for a year or less. Although it has a strongish aroma when you cut it, it's very mild on the meat. I think one of the attractions of Texas barbecue is that the smoke flavor isn't so much in your face as deep in the meat. Pecan is also quite common in these parts and imparts a sweeter smokiness to the food. It's really good for poultry and fish.

Jeff
 
I used B & B post oak on my offset a couple of weeks ago, & although it is kiln dried, I am now a definite believer in post oak. It burns hot creating a good bed of coals that is consistent which is essential for longer cooks on an offset. The flavor was not overpowering, just a clean smoky flavor. I am not sure if my local wood supplier will have any, if not I will continue using B & B.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top